After sermon, we have commitment times when people walk up to the commitment table. There are six categories for commitment. If a person wants to register to our church, to accept Jesus as his or her personal Savior, to receive baptism, or to apply for the membership, he or she walks to the commitment table and marks the corresponding category. In addition to these one-time commitment occasions,anybody can come to the front when he or she makes a new decision after hearing the sermon or participating in the service and wants to recommit himself or herself to Jesus. Other people come to the front to make a prayer request. While the former four types’ commitment happens for just once, people come to the front repeatedly to receive prayer or to recommit themselves.
It is often noticed that there is the correlation between how soon a person changes after receiving Jesus for his or her Savior and how many time that person comes to the front to recommit himself or herself to Jesus. In other words, one who comes to the front frequently to receive prayer or to recommit himself or herself changes faster than others who do not.By contrast, for those who do not come to the front at all, their spiritual growth is often slower.
There are some people who come to the front almost every Sunday. They openly present their problems to the Lord and recommit themselves saying, “I have this and that problem; I want to become this and that person; I will try this and that.” These people change rapidly within two or three years and become stable and spiritually grown persons. Among our leaders, some come to the front and recommit themselves whenever they receive new insights. Almost twenty years have passed since they received Jesus for their Savior, but they are still growing.
This is because of the power of commitment. When we openly present our problems to the Lord and confess them in detail, we are given the power to overcome them.In addition, when we make a concrete decision (“I will try this and that”), sermons have the power to change our lives. Repeated commitment can break our old bad habits. Accordingly, we should grow the habit of coming to the front and recommitting ourselves whenever we feel God’s special grace during the services.
In order to do so, we need to be free from some concerns. First of all, we should not worry about what other people might think about us when they see us come to the front to recommit. For example, not many people come out to recommit themselves when sermon topics are something like adultery like now. When I asked people who came to tell me after service that they felt God’s special grace during service why they did not recommit themselves, they said they were afraid that what other people might think about them; they did not want others to misunderstand them. However, each of us recommits to Jesus with different reasons; after the same sermon, people recommit themselves with totally different decisions. We should not mind what others might think of us when we want to recommit to the Lord. Neither should we wonder whether others have any problems related with the sermon topic when we see them walk up to the commitment table.
Sometimes I meet people who say that they do not come out because they do not increase my workload. However, seeing many people at the commitment table is one of the most delightful and rewarding times. Others say that they do not come out because their recommitment is about such a trivial matter, because they recommitted last week, or because they feel bashful to walk to the front. But spiritual greed is good. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. Let us not waste our services and God’s grace; Let us recommit again and again so that we continuously change and grow.
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